Arizona Mesa Mission Address

Monday, July 25, 2011

July 25, 2011

Dear Family,

Thanks for all of the pictures you sent me Mom!! This past week was pretty awesome. We had the baptismal service for Marcos Piedra, the first man I have baptized on the mission!!!! (The photos are of Marcos, his wife, Maria, and her family.) He was a real miracle and made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. The service was really awesome and we had a ton of people show up. We didn't even have enough seats for everyone. Our Zone leaders were able to bring a family as well, which was awesome. (If you remember, my old companion, Elder Ralphs, is one of my current Zone Leaders.) Marcos is a humble and kind of timid guy, but he will be a good addition to the branch. We are going to try hard to get others from the Elders' Quorum to stay involved with him so he can get the Priesthood and get really comfortable with the branch.

This past week we continued to be bombarded by a slew of problems and difficulties that the members are having. Some of them are because of Arizona State Senator, Russel Pearce, and his membership in the church. It is really frustrating to try and help people overcome doubt. I think it is best to bring a member who is Hispanic because they can relate better, plus we aren't supposed to be involving ourselves in politics.

We found a sweet investigator through a recent convert that we taught in a member home last night. She is going to have a lot of support because she lives in a complex with a ton of members, and she's been friends with some of them for a long time. We do need to pick up our "finding" efforts a bit this week. We are going to clean out the Area Book, go by and visit all the "formers" and go from there.

I also sent a picture of me in a little dust storm which is kind of cool. I don't know if it is me or the camera but it is so hard to take a picture that is not blurry without taking a bunch. Also I am running low on silly bands again because there are a lot of ninos in this area!!!! Love you all and hope you are well.